Horticulture and Soil Science Wiki:Manual of Style
Here at Horticulture and Soil Science Wiki (H&SS) we want to make our articles as consistant and professional as possible. In order to make this possible we have created a Manual of Style (MoS). Please read the MoS before editing so that H&SS can be as elegant and perfect as the flowers we grow. Naming Articles The title of an article should be based on this article titles policy. The principal criteria are that a title be recognizable (as a name or description of the topic), natural, sufficiently precise, concise, and consistent with the titles of related articles. If these criteria are in conflict, they need to be balanced against one other. Article title format: *Use "title case"; that is, every word is capitalized except articles (except in certain cases when the article is the first word in the title). *Do not use "A", "An", or "The" as the first word (Economy of the Second Empire, not The Economy of the Second Empire), unless by convention it is an inseparable part of a name (The Hague) or it is part of the title of a work (A Clockwork Orange, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien). *Titles should normally be nouns or noun phrases: Early life, not In early life. *The final visible character should not be a punctuation mark unless it is part of a name (Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!) or an abbreviation (Inverness City F.C.), or a closing round bracket or quotation mark is required (John Palmer (schooner)). The Manual of Style also applies to titles of sections in the article. Scientific Classifications Biological Classification H&SS Wiki will use the Cronquist system of botanical classification. That is as follows: DOMAIN ---> KINGDOM ---> PHYLUM (DIVISION) ---> CLASS ---> ORDER ---> FAMILY ---> GENUS ---> SPECIES ---> VARIETY ---> FORM ---> CULTIVAR The Binomial name of an organism consists of Genus name first and then species name second. Varieties, forms and cultivars will be in italics and consist of the three part Latin name. Minor taxonomic ranking (subphylum, superclass, magnorder, etc.) will be used when necessary. See Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_classification Soil Classification For purposes of classifying soil, H&SS will follow the taxonomic order put forth by the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Cooperative Soil Survey as follows: ORDER ---> SUBORDER ---> GREAT GROUP ---> SUBGROUP ---> FAMILY ---> SERIES See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy Section organization An article should begin with an introductory lead section, which does not contain section headings. The remainder is divided into sections, each with a section heading (see below) that can be nested in a hierarchy. If there are at least four section headings in the article, a navigable table of contents is generated automatically and displayed between the lead and the first heading. It is possible to have a table of contents with less sections by placing the magic word __TOC__ where you want the table of contents to appear. Alternatively, if you want to ensure that there is no table of contents whatsoever, use the magic word . Section headings Headings are produced by typing multiple equal signs. A primary section heading is written Title , a subsection below it is written Title , and so on (a maximum of six levels is possible). Spaces between the equal signs and the heading text are optional, and will not affect the way the heading is displayed. The heading must be typed on a separate line. Include one blank line above the heading, and optionally one blank line below it, for readability in the edit window. (Only two or more consecutive blank lines will add more white space in the public appearance of the page.) *Headings should not refer redundantly to the subject of the article, or to higher-level headings, unless doing so is shorter or clearer. (Early life is preferable to His early life when “his” refers to the subject of the article; headings can be assumed to be about the subject unless otherwise indicated.) *Headings should not normally contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked. *Section and subsection headings should preferably be unique within a page; otherwise section links may lead to the wrong place, and automatic edit summaries can be ambiguous. *Citations should not be placed within or on the same line as section and subsection headings. *Headings should not contain images, including flag icons. Variety of English The Horticulture and Soil Science Wiki does not favor one variety of English over another. However, for purposes of consistency, this wiki will use Standard American English in all of its articles. Retaining the existing variety In general, disputes over which English variety to use in an article are discouraged. Such debates rarely accomplish anything apart from wasting time and causing controversy. ;Opportunities for commonality H&SS tries to find words that are common to all varieties of English. Insisting on a single term or a single usage as the only correct option does not serve the purposes of an international encyclopedia. Universally used terms are often preferable to less widely distributed terms, especially in article titles. For example, fixed-wing aircraft is preferred to the national varieties aeroplane (British English) and airplane (American English). If one variant spelling appears in an article title, make a page to accommodate the other variants, as with Artefact and Artifact, so that all variants can be used in searches and in linking. Use a commonly understood word or phrase in preference to one that has a different meaning because of national differences (rather than alternate, use alternative or alternating depending on which sense is meant). Grammar Capital letters Title case is used in article titles and section headings (see Article titles and Section headings above). For capitalization of list items, see Bulleted and numbered lists. Other points concerning capitalization are summarized below. Do not use capitals for emphasis Do not use capital letters for emphasis; where wording alone cannot provide the emphasis, use italics. Incorrect: It is not only a LITTLE (or Little) learning that is dangerous. Correct: It is not only a little learning that is dangerous. Capitalization of "The" Generally do not capitalize the definite article in the middle of a sentence: an article about the United Kingdom (not about The United Kingdom). However there are some idiomatic exceptions, including most titles of artistic works: Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings (but Homer wrote the Odyssey); public transport in The Hague. Titles of people In generic use, apply lower case for words such as president, king, and emperor (De Gaulle was a French president; Louis XVI was a French king; Three prime ministers attended the conference). In parts of a person's title, begin such words with a capital letter (President Obama, not president Obama). Standard or commonly used names of an office are treated as proper nouns (The British Prime Minister is David Cameron; Hirohito was Emperor of Japan; Louis XVI was King of France). Royal styles are capitalized (Her Majesty; His Highness); exceptions may apply for particular offices. Religions, deities, philosophies, doctrines Religions, sects, and churches and their followers (in noun or adjective form) start with a capital letter. Generally, "the" is not capitalized before such names (the Shī‘a, not The Shī‘a). Religious texts (scriptures) are capitalized, but often not italicized (the Bhagavad Gita, the Qur’an, the Talmud, the Granth Sahib, the Bible). When "the" is used, it is not capitalized. Some derived adjectives are capitalized by convention, some are not (biblical, but Koranic); if unsure, check a dictionary. Honorifics for deities, including proper nouns and titles, start with a capital letter (God, Allah, the Lord, the Supreme Being, the Great Spirit, the Horned One, Bhagavan). Do not capitalize "the" in such cases or when referring to major religious figures or characters from mythology (the Prophet, the Messiah, the Virgin). Common nouns for deities and religious figures are not capitalized (many gods; the god Woden). Pronouns for figures of veneration are not capitalized, even if capitalized in a religion's scriptures. Broad categories of mythical or legendary beings start with lower-case letters (elf, fairy, nymph, unicorn, angel), although in derived works of fantasy, such as the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien and real-time strategy video games, initial capitals are sometimes used to indicate that the beings form a culture or race in a fictional universe. Capitalize the names or titles of individual creatures (the Minotaur, Pegasus) and of groups whose name and membership are fixed (the Magi, or the Three Wise Men, the Cherubim). Generalized references are not capitalized (these priests; several wise men; cherub-like). Spiritual or religious events are capitalized only when referring to specific incidents or periods (the Great Flood and the Exodus; but annual flooding and an exodus of refugees). Philosophies, theories, movements, and doctrines use lower case unless the name derives from a proper noun (capitalism versus Marxism) or has become a proper noun (lower-case republican, referring to a system of political thought; upper-caseRepublican, a political party). Use lower case for doctrinal topics or canonical religious ideas (as opposed to specific events), even if they are capitalized by some religious adherents (virgin birth, original sin, transubstantiation). Platonic or transcendent ideals are capitalized in the context of philosophical doctrine (Truth, the Good); used more broadly, they are in lower case (Superman represents American ideals of truth and justice). Use capitals for personifications represented in art (the guidebook mentioned statues of Justice and Liberty). Calendar items Months, days of the week, and holidays start with a capital letter (June, Monday; the Fourth of July refers only to the US Independence Day—otherwise July 4 or 4 July). Seasons are in lower case (her last summer; the winter solstice; spring fever), except in personifications or in proper names for periods or events (Old Man Winter; the team had great success on the Spring Circuit). 'Scientific Names' When using scientific names, capitalize the genus but not the species or rank below species if present (Berberis darwinii, Erithacus rubecula superbus). No exception is made for proper names forming part of scientific names. Higher taxa (order, family, etc.) are capitalized in Latin (Carnivora, Felidae) but not in their English equivalents (carnivorans, felids). Common (vernacular) names do not have each word capitalized, except where proper names appear (zebras, mountain maple, but Przewalski's horse). Celestial bodies When used generally, the words sun, earth, and moon do not take capitals (The sun was peeking over the mountain top; The tribal people of the Americas thought of the whole earth as their home), except when the entity is personified (Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") was the Roman sun god) or when the term names a specific astronomical body (The Moon orbits the Earth; but Io is a moon of Jupiter). Names of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, stars, constellations, and galaxies are proper nouns, and therefore capitalized (The planet Mars can be seen tonight in the constellation Gemini, near the star Pollux; Halley's Comet is the most famous of the periodic comets; The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy). The first letter of every word in such a name is capitalized (Alpha Centauri and not Alpha centauri; Milky Way, not Milky way). Compass points Do not capitalize directions such as north, nor their related forms (We took the northern road), except where they are parts of names (such as Great North Road). Capitalize names of regions if they have attained proper-name status, including informal conventional names (Southern California; the Western Desert), and derived terms for people (e.g. a Southerner as someone from the Southern United States). Do not capitalize descriptive names for regions that have not attained the status of proper names, such as southern Poland. Composite directions are not hyphenated. Institutions Names of particular institutions are proper nouns and require capitals, but generic words for institutions (university, college, hospital, high school) do not. For example: The university offers programs in arts and sciences, but The University of Delhi offers... The word the at the start of a title is usually uncapitalized, but follow the institution's own usage (a degree from the University of Sydney; but researchers at The Ohio State University). Similar considerations apply to political or geographical units, such as cities and islands: The city has a population of 55,000, but The City of Smithville... (an official name). (Note also the use of the City to refer to the City of London.) Abbreviations Write out both the full version and the abbreviation at first occurrence When an abbreviation is to be used in an article, give the expression in full at first, followed immediately by the abbreviation in parentheses (round brackets). In the rest of the article the abbreviation can then be used by itself: The New Democratic Party (NDP) won the 1990 Ontario election with a significant majority, at the first mention of the New Democratic Party; andthe NDP quickly became unpopular with the voters, at a subsequent mention. Make an exception for very common abbreviations; in most articles they require no expansion (PhD, DNA, USSR). Do not apply initial capitals in a full version simply because capitals are used in the abbreviation. Plural and possessive forms Acronyms and initialisms, like other nouns, become plurals by adding -s or -es (they produced three CD-ROMs in the first year; the laptops were produced with three different BIOSes in 2006). As with other nouns, no apostrophe is used unless the form is a possessive. Periods (full stops) and spaces ''' The letters in an acronym or an initialism are generally '''not separated by periods (full stops) or blank spaces (GNP, NORAD, OBE, GmbH). Periods and spaces that were traditionally required have now dropped out of usage (PhD is now preferred over Ph.D. andPh. D.). Periods are not used in units of measurement; see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers. There are some traditional exceptions (i.e., e.g.; not ie, eg, i. e., e. g.); and see below for US and U.S. Abbreviations''' formed by truncation''' (Hon. for Honorable), compression (cmte. for committee), or contraction (Dr. for Doctor) will be closed with a period. Words that are abbreviated to more than one letter are spaced (op. cit. or op cit; not op.cit. or opcit). ' ' US and U.S. ''' '''U.S. (with periods) will be used as the standard abbreviation for United States. In longer abbreviations incorporating the country's initials (USN, USAF), periods are not used. When the United States is mentioned with one or more other countries in the same sentence, U.S. or US may be too informal, especially at the first mention (France and the United States, not France and the U.S.). Do not use the spaced U. S., nor the archaic U.S. of A., except when quoting. Do not use U.S.A. or USA, except in a quotation or as part of a proper name (Team USA). Circa ' To indicate ''approximately, the unitalicised abbreviation c. (followed by a space) is preferred over circa, ca., or approx. Do not use unwarranted abbreviations Avoid abbreviations when they might confuse the reader, interrupt the flow, or appear informal. For example, do not use approx. for approximate or approximately, except to reduce the width of an infobox or a table of data, or in a technical passage in which the term occurs many times. 'Do not invent abbreviations or acronyms ' Generally avoid making up new abbreviations, especially acronyms (World Union of Billiards is good as a translation of Union Mondiale de Billard, but neither it nor the reduction WUB is used by the organization; so use the original name and its official abbreviation, UMB). If it is necessary to abbreviate a heading in a wide table of data, use widely recognized initialisms 'Ampersand ' The ampersand (&) substitutes for the word and (it was a form of Latin et). In normal text, and should be used instead: January 1 and 2, not January 1 & 2. Retain ampersands in titles of works or organizations, such as The Tom & Jerry Show or AT&T. Ampersands may be used with consistency and discretion in tables, infoboxes, and similar contexts where space is limited. Modern editions of old texts routinely replace ampersands with and (just as they replace other disused glyphs, ligatures, and abbreviations); so an article's quotations may be cautiously modified, especially for consistency where different editions are quoted. (For similar allowable modifications see Quotations, below.) 'Italics ' Emphasis Italics may be used sparingly to emphasize words in sentences (whereas boldface is normally not used for this purpose). Generally, the more highlighting in an article, the less it is effectiveness. Use italics when introducing terms, or distinguishing among them (The enamel organ is composed of the outer enamel epithelium, inner enamel epithelium, stellate reticulum, and stratum intermedium). Titles Use italics for the titles of works of literature and art, such as books, pamphlets, films (including short films), television series, music albums, and paintings. The titles of articles, chapters, songs, television episodes, and other short works are not italicized; they are enclosed in double quotation marks. Italics are not used for major revered religious works (the Bible, the Qur'an, the Talmud). 'Words as words ' Use italics when mentioning a word or letter or a string of words up to one full sentence (the term panning is derived from panorama, a word coined in 1787; the most commonly used letter in English is e''). When a whole sentence is mentioned, quotation marks may be used instead, with consistency (The preposition in ''She sat on the chair is on; or The preposition in "She sat on the chair" is "on"). Mentioning (to discuss such features as grammar, wording, and punctuation) is different from quoting (in which something is usually expressed on behalf of a quoted source). 'Foreign words ' Use italics for phrases in other languages and for isolated foreign words that are not common in everyday English. Proper names (such as place names) in other languages, however, are not usually italicized. Scientific names Use italics for the scientific names of plants, animals and other organisms at the genus level and below (italicize Panthera leo but not Felidae). The hybrid sign is not italicized (Rosa × damascena), nor is the "connecting term" required in three-part botanical names (Rosa gallica subsp. officinalis). 'Quotations in italics ' For quotations, use only quotation marks (for short quotations) or block quoting (for long ones), not italics. This means that (1) a quotation is not italicized inside quotation marks or a block quote just because it is a quotation, and (2) italics are no substitute for proper quotation formatting. Italics within quotations Use italics within quotations if they are already in the source material. If the source has used italics (or some other styling) for emphasis and this is not otherwise evident, the editorial note in original should appear after the quotation. Effect on nearby punctuation Italicize only the elements of the sentence affected by the emphasis. Do not italicize surrounding punctuation. Italicized links The italics markup must be outside the link markup, or the link will not work; however, internal italicization can be used in piped links. '''Quotations Minimal change Preserve the original text, spelling, and punctuation. Where there is a good reason to make a change, insert an explanation within square brackets (for example, father replacing him, where the context explaining him is omitted in the quotation). Trivial spelling or typographical errors should be silently corrected (for example, correct ommission to omission, harasssment to harassment)—unless the slip is textually important. Use ellipses to indicate omissions from quoted text. Legitimate omissions include extraneous, irrelevant, or parenthetical words, and unintelligible or guttural speech (umm, and hmm). Do not omit text where doing so would remove important context or alter the meaning of the text. When a vulgarity or obscenity is quoted, it should appear exactly as it does in the cited source; words should never be abridged by replacing letters with dashes, asterisks, or other symbols. In carrying over such an alteration from a quoted source, [sic] may be used to indicate that the transcription is exact. Allowable typographical changes Although the requirement of minimal change is strict, a few purely typographical elements of quoted text should be adapted to English Wikipedia's conventions without comment. This practice of conforming typographical styling to a publication's own "house style" is universal. Allowable typographical alterations include these: Styling of apostrophes and quotation marks: they should all be straight, not curly or slanted. Non-English typographical elements in quotations: Replace them with their English-language equivalents; e.g. replace guillemets («») with straight quotation marks. Spaces before punctuation such as periods and colons: these should be removed as alien to modern English-language publishing. Some text styling should be altered. Of course the typeface will be automatically standardized; but generally preserve bold and italics (see Italics, above). Where the source is an old typewritten document such as an academic dissertation, underlining is almost certainly used to represent italics, and should be changed to italics as it would be by any book publisher. Other forms of unusual emphasis (colored highlighting, small caps, etc.) can likewise be replaced with italics or boldface as seems most appropriate. It is also permissible for clarity to add non-emphasis italics, or quotation marks as applicable, where they would normally be found in non-quoted prose, e.g. around the title of a book or poem. When quoting from early modern sources, normalize disused glyphs and ligatures to modern usage when doing so will not change or obscure the meaning of the text. Examples of such changes include the following: æ→ae, œ→oe, ſ→s, and ye→the. If an entire sentence is quoted in such a way that it becomes a grammatical part of the larger sentence, the first letter loses its capitalization (It turned out to be true that "a penny saved is a penny earned"). Quotations within quotations When a quotation includes another quotation (and so on), start with double quote marks outermost, and, working inward, alternate single with double quote marks ("She accepted his statement that 'Voltaire never said "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."'", with three levels of quotation). Attribution The author of a quote of a full sentence or more should be named; this is done in the main text and not in a footnote. However, attribution is unnecessary with quotations that are clearly from the person discussed in the article or section. When preceding a quotation with its attribution, avoid characterizing it in a biased manner. Linking As much as possible, avoid linking from within quotes, which may clutter the quotation, violate the principle of leaving quotations unchanged, and mislead or confuse the reader. Foreign-language quotations Quotations from foreign-language sources should appear in translation. Quotations that are translations should be explicitly distinguished from those that are not. Indicate the original source of a translation and the original language (if that is not clear from the context). If the original, untranslated text is available, provide a reference for it or include it, as appropriate. 'Punctuation' Apostrophes Consistent use of the straight (or typewriter) apostrophe ( ' ) is recommended, as opposed to the curly (or typographic) apostrophe ( ’). For details and reasons, see Quotation marks, below. Quotation marks The term quotation in the material below also includes other uses of quotation marks such as those for titles of songs, chapters, episodes, unattributable aphorisms, literal strings, "scare-quoted" passages, and constructed examples. Double or single Enclose quotations with double quotation marks (Bob said, "Jim ate the apple."). Enclose quotations inside quotations with single quotation marks (Bob said, "Did Jim say 'I ate the apple' after he left?"). This is by far the dominant convention in current practice; see other reasons, below. There are some conventional codified exceptions, such as single quotation marks for plant cultivars (Malus domestica 'Golden Delicious'); see WP:FLORA. Article openings When the title of an article appearing in the lead paragraph requires quotation marks (for example, the title of a song or poem), the quotation marks should not be in boldface, as they are not part of the title: Quotation characters Do not use grave and acute accents or back ticks (`'''text´') as quotation marks (or as apostrophes). There are two possible methods for rendering quotation marks at Wikipedia (that is, the glyphs, displayed with emphasis here, for clarity): Typewriter or straight style: '"text", 'text'. '''Recommended. Typographic or curly style: “'''text”', '‘'text'’'. '''Not recommended.' Whenever quotation marks or apostrophes appear in article titles, make a redirect from the same title but using the alternative glyphs. Punctuation inside or outside American style for punctuation will be used, whereby commas and periods are almost always placed inside closing quotation marks. When dealing with words-as-words, short-form works and sentence fragments, this style places periods and commas inside the quotation marks: "Carefree," in general, means "free from care or anxiety." The name of the song was "Gloria," which many already knew. She said she felt "free from care and anxiety." This style also places periods and commas inside the quotation marks when dealing with direct speech, regardless of whether the work is fiction or non-fiction: "Today," said Cinderella, "I feel free from care and anxiety." (fiction) "Today," said the Prime Minister, "I feel free from care and anxiety." (non-fiction) Many American style guides explicitly permit periods and commas outside the quotation marks when the presence of the punctuation mark inside the quotation marks will lead to ambiguity, such as when describing keyboard input: To use a long dash on Wikipedia, type in "—". Regardless of placement, only one end mark (?, !, or .) can end a sentence. Only the period, however, may not end a quoted sentence when it does not also end the enclosing sentence, except for literal text: "Hello, world," she said. She said, "Hello, world." "Hello, world!" she exclaimed. "Is there anybody out there?" she asked into the void. Spacing Brackets and parentheses These rules apply to both round brackets ( ( ) ), often called parentheses, and square brackets ( [ ] ). If a sentence contains a bracketed phrase, place the sentence punctuation outside the brackets (as shown here). However, where one or more sentences are wholly inside brackets, place their punctuation inside the brackets. There should be no space next to the inner side of a bracket. An opening bracket should be preceded by a space, except in unusual cases; for example, when it is preceded by an opening quotation mark, another opening bracket, or a portion of a word: He rose to address the meeting: "(Ahem) ... Ladies and gentlemen, welcome!" Only the royal characters in the play (Prince Hamlet and his family) habitually speak in blank verse. We journeyed on the Intercontinental. There should be a space after a closing bracket, except where a punctuation mark follows (though a spaced dash would still be spaced after a closing bracket), and in unusual cases similar to those listed for opening brackets. If sets of brackets are nested, use different types for adjacent levels of nesting; for two levels, it is customary to have square brackets appear within round brackets. This is often a sign of excessively convoluted expression; it is often better to recast, linking the thoughts with commas, semicolons, colons, or dashes. Avoid adjacent sets of brackets. Either put the parenthetic phrases in one set separated by commas, or rewrite the sentence: Square brackets are used to indicate editorial replacements and insertions within quotations, though this should never alter the intended meaning. They serve three main purposes: To clarify. (She attended secondary school, where this was the intended meaning, but the type of school was unstated in the original sentence.) To reduce the size of a quotation. (X contains Y, and under certain circumstances, X may contain Z as well may be reduced to X contains Y sometimes Z.) When an ellipsis (...) is used to indicate that material is removed from a direct quotation, it should not normally be bracketed. To make the grammar work. (Referring to someone's statement "I hate to do laundry", one could properly write: She "hates to do laundry".) Sentences and brackets If any sentence includes material that is enclosed in square or round brackets, it still must end—with a period, or a question or exclamation mark—''after'' those brackets. This principle applies no matter what punctuation is used within the brackets: She refused all requests (except for basics such as food, medicine, etc.). However, if the entire sentence is within brackets, the closing punctuation falls within the brackets. (This sentence is an example.) This does not apply to matter that is added (or modified editorially) at the beginning of a sentence for clarity, which is usually in square brackets: "Skinner already told me that", he objected. That is preferable to this, which is potentially ambiguous: "He already told me that", he objected. But even here consider an addition rather than a replacement of text: "He Skinner already told me that", he objected. A sentence that occurs within brackets in the course of another sentence does not generally have its first word capitalized just because it starts a sentence. The enclosed sentence may have a question mark or exclamation mark added, but not a period. See the indented example above, and also: Alexander then conquered (who would have believed it?) most of the known world. Clare demanded that he drive (she knew he hated driving) to the supermarket. It is often clearer to separate the thoughts into separate sentences or clauses: Alexander then conquered most of the known world. Who would have believed it? Clare demanded that he drive to the supermarket; she knew he hated driving. Ellipses An ellipsis (plural ellipses) is an omission of material from quoted text; or some other omission, perhaps of the end of a sentence, often used in a printed record of conversation. The ellipsis is represented by ellipsis points: a set of three dots. Style Ellipsis points, or ellipses, have traditionally been implemented in three ways: Three unspaced periods (...). This is the easiest way, and gives a predictable appearance in HTML. Recommended. Function and implementation Use an ellipsis if material is omitted in the course of a quotation, unless square brackets are used to gloss the quotation. Put a space on each side of an ellipsis ("France, Germany, ... and Belgium"), except that there should be no space between an ellipsis and: a quotation mark directly following the ellipsis ("France, Germany, and Belgium ..."). any (round, square, curly, etc.) bracket, where the ellipsis is on the inside ("France, Germany (but not Berlin, Munich, ...), and Belgium"). sentence-final punctuation, or a colon, semicolon, or comma (all rare), directly following the ellipsis ("Are we going to France ...?"). Only place terminal punctuation after an ellipsis if it is textually important (as is often the case with exclamation marks and question marks, and rarely with periods). Pause or suspension of speech Three periods (loosely also called ellipsis points) are occasionally used to represent a pause in or suspense of speech, in which case the punctuation is retained in its original form (Virginia's startled reply was: "Could he ...? No, I cannot believe it!"). Avoid this usage on Wikipedia, except in direct quotations. With square brackets An ellipsis does not normally need square brackets around it, because its function is usually obvious—especially if the guidelines above are followed. Square brackets, however, may optionally be used for precision, to make it clear that the ellipsis is not itself quoted; this is usually only necessary if the quoted passage also uses three periods in it to indicate a pause or suspension. The ellipsis should follow exactly the principles given above, but with square brackets inserted immediately before and after it (Her long rant continued: "How do I feel? How do you think I ... look, this has gone far enough! ... I want to go home!"). Commas Commas are the most frequently used marks in punctuation. They can also be the most difficult to use well. Points: Pairs of commas are often used to delimit parenthetic material, forming a parenthetical remark. This interrupts the sentence less than a parenthetical remark in (round) brackets or dashes. Do not be fooled by other punctuation, which can mask the need for a comma, especially when it collides with a bracket or parenthesis, as in this example: On Wikipedia, place quotation marks in accordance with standard U.S. grammar rules: Modern practice is against excessive use of commas; there are usually ways to simplify a sentence so that fewer are needed. Serial commas A serial comma (also known as an Oxford comma or a Harvard comma) is a comma used immediately before a conjunction (and or or, sometimes nor) in a list of three or more items: the phrase ham, chips, and eggs includes a serial comma, while the variant ham, chips and eggs omits it. Editors are encouraged to use the Oxford Comma. However, there are some times when the serial comma can create or remove confusion: Sometimes omitting the comma can lead to an ambiguous sentence, as in this example: The author thanked her parents, Sinéad O'Connor and President Obama, which may list either four people (the two parents and the two people named) or two people (O'Connor and Obama, who are the parents). Including the comma can also cause ambiguity, as in this example: The author thanked her mother, Sinéad O'Connor, and President Obama, which may list either two people (O'Connor, who is the mother, and Obama) or three people (the first being the mother, the second O'Connor, and the third Obama). In such cases of ambiguity, there are three ways to clarify: Use or omit the serial comma to avoid ambiguity. Recast the sentence. List the elements by using a format, such as one with paragraph breaks and numbered paragraphs. Recasting example one: To list four people: The author thanked President Obama, Sinéad O'Connor, and her parents. To list two people (the commas here set off non-restrictive appositives): The author thanked her father, President Obama, and her mother, Sinéad O'Connor. Clearer (but more wordy): The author thanked her father and her mother, who are President Obama and Sinéad O'Connor respectively. Recasting example two: To list two people: The author thanked President Obama and her mother, Sinéad O'Connor. To list three people: The author thanked her mother, President Obama, and Sinéad O'Connor. The clarity of the last example depends on the reader's knowing that Obama is male and cannot be a mother. If we change the example slightly, we are back to an ambiguous statement: The author thanked her mother, Irish President Mary McAleese, and Sinéad O'Connor. Clearer: The author thanked President Obama, Sinéad O'Connor, and her mother; or The author thanked President Mary McAleese, Sinéad O'Connor, and her mother. Colons A colon (:) informs the reader that what comes after it demonstrates, explains, or modifies what has come before, or is a list of items that has just been introduced. The items in such a list may be separated by commas; or, if they are more complex and perhaps themselves contain commas, the items should be separated by semicolons: We visited several tourist attractions: the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which I thought could fall at any moment; the Bridge of Sighs; the supposed birthplace of Petrarch, or at least the first known house in which he lived; and so many more. A colon may also be used to introduce direct speech enclosed within quotation marks. In most cases a colon works best with a complete grammatical sentence before it. There are exceptional cases, such as those where the colon introduces items set off in new lines like the very next colon here. Examples: The word following a colon is capitalized, if that word effectively begins a new grammatical sentence, and especially if the colon serves to introduce more than one sentence: The argument is easily stated: We have been given only three tickets. There are four of us here: you, the twins, and me. The twins are inseparable. Therefore, you or I will have to stay home. No sentence should contain more than one colon. There should never be a hyphen or a dash immediately following a colon. Only a single space follows a colon. Semicolons A semicolon (;) is sometimes an alternative to a full stop (period), enabling related material to be kept in the same sentence; it marks a more decisive division in a sentence than a comma. If the semicolon separates clauses, normally each clause must be independent (meaning that it could stand on its own as a sentence); often, only a comma or only a semicolon will be correct in a given sentence. Above, "Though he had been here before" cannot stand on its own as a sentence, and therefore is not an independent clause. This incorrect use of a comma between two independent clauses is known as a comma splice; however, in very rare cases, a comma may be used where a semicolon would seem to be called for: A semicolon does not force a capital letter in the word that follows it. A sentence may contain several semicolons, especially when the clauses are parallel; multiple unrelated semicolons are often signs that the sentence should be divided into shorter sentences, or otherwise refashioned. Semicolon before "however" The meaning of a sentence containing a trailing clause that starts with the word "however" depends on the punctuation preceding that word. A common error is to use the wrong punctuation, thereby changing the meaning to one not intended. If used with the same meaning as "nevertheless", the word "however" should be preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma. Example: If the word "however" in the sentence means "in whatever manner", or "regardless of how", it may be preceded by a comma but not by a semicolon, and should not be followed by punctuation. Example: In the first case, the clause that starts with "however" cannot be swapped with the first clause; in the second case this can be done without change of meaning: If the two clauses cannot be swapped, a semicolon is required. A sentence or clause can also contain the word "however" in the middle if it was moved there from the front. In that case it can be changed to "though", and it is not the start of a clause; in this use the word may be enclosed between commas. Example: Hyphens Hyphens (-) indicate conjunction. There are three main uses. To distinguish between homographs (re-dress means dress again, but redress means remedy or set right). To link certain prefixes with their main word (non-linear, sub-section, super-achiever). There is a clear trend to join both elements in all varieties of English (subsection, nonlinear), particularly in American English. Always close up without a hyphen when possible. To link related terms in compound modifiers: Hyphens can help with ease of reading (face-to-face discussion, hard-boiled egg); where non-experts are part of the readership, a hyphen is particularly useful in long noun phrases, such as those in Wikipedia's scientific articles: gas-phase reaction dynamics. However, hyphens are never inserted into proper-name-based compounds (Middle Eastern cuisine, not Middle-Eastern cuisine). A hyphen can help to disambiguate (little-celebrated paintings is not a reference to little paintings; a government-monitoring program is a program that monitors the government, whereas a government monitoring program is a government program that monitors something else). Many compounds that are hyphenated when used attributively (before the noun they qualify: a light-blue handbag), are not hyphenated when used predicatively (separated from the noun: the handbag was light blue). Hyphenation also occurs in bird names, such as Great Black-backed Gull, and in proper names, such as Trois-Rivières. Where otherwise there would be a loss of clarity, the hyphen may be used in the predicative case as well (hand-fed turkeys, the turkeys were hand-fed). A hyphen is not used after a standard ''-ly'' adverb (a newly available home, a wholly owned subsidiary) unless part of a larger compound (a slowly-but-surely strategy). A few words ending in -ly function as both adjectives and adverbs (a kindly-looking teacher; a kindly provided facility). Some such dual-purpose words (like early, only, northerly) are not standard -ly adverbs, since they are not formed by addition of -ly to an independent current-English adjective. These need careful treatment: Early flowering plants appeared around 130 million years ago, but Early-flowering plants risk damage from winter frosts; northerly-situated islands. A hyphen is normally used when the adverb well precedes a participle used attributively (a well-meaning gesture; but normally a very well managed firm, since well itself is modified); and even predicatively, if well is necessary to, or alters, the sense of the adjective rather than simply intensifying it (the gesture was well-meaning, the child was well-behaved, but the floor was well polished). In some cases, like diode–transistor logic, the independent status of the linked elements requires an en dash instead of a hyphen. A hanging hyphen is used when two compound modifiers are separated (two- and three-digit numbers, a ten-car or -truck convoy, sloping right- or leftward, but better is sloping rightward or leftward). Values and units used as compound modifiers are hyphenated only where the unit is given as a whole word. Multi-hyphenated items: It is often possible to avoid multi-word hyphenated modifiers by rewording (a four-CD soundtrack album may be easier to read as a soundtrack album of four CDs). This is particularly important where converted units are involved (the 6-hectare-limit (14.8-acre-limit) rule might be possible as the rule imposing a limit of 6 hectares (14.8 acres), and the ungainly 4.9-mile (7.9 km) -long tributary as simply 4.9-mile (7.9 km) tributary). Spacing: A hyphen is never followed or preceded by a space, except when hanging or when used to display parts of words independently, such as the prefix sub- and the suffix -less. Image filenames and redirects: Image filenames are not part of encyclopedic content; they're tools. They are most useful tools if they can be readily typed, so they always use hyphens instead of dashes. Similarly, article titles with dashes should have a corresponding redirect from the title with hyphens: for example, Michelson Morley experiment redirects to Michelson–Morley experiment, as the latter title, while correct, is harder to search for. Hyphenation involves many subtleties that cannot be covered here; the rules and examples presented above illustrate the broad principles that inform current usage. Slashes Generally avoid joining two words by a slash, also known as a forward slash or solidus ( / ). It suggests that the two are related, but does not specify how. It is often also unclear how the construct would be read aloud. Replace with clearer wording. An example: The parent/instructor must be present at all times. Must both be present? (Then write the parent and the instructor.) Must at least one be present? (Then write the parent or the instructor.) Are they the same person? (Use a hyphen: the parent-instructor.) In circumstances involving a distinction or disjunction, the en dash (see above) is usually preferable to the slash: the digital–analog distinction. An unspaced slash may be used: to indicate phonemic pronunciations (ribald is pronounced /ˈrɪbəld/) to separate the numerator and denominator in a fraction (7/8 or 7⁄8) to indicate regular defined yearly periods that do not coincide with calendar years (the 2009/10 academic year, the 2010/11 hockey season A spaced slash may be used: to separate run-in lines in quoted poetry or song (To be or not to be: that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune), or rarely in quoted prose, where careful marking of a paragraph break is textually important to separate items that include at least one internal space (the NY 31 east / NY 370 exit), where for some reason use of a slash is unavoidable Do not use the backslash character ( \ ) in place of a slash. And/or Avoid the construct and/or on H&SS. In general, where it is important to mark an inclusive or, use x or y, or both, rather than x and/or y. For an exclusive or, use either x or y, and optionally add but not both, if it is necessary to stress the exclusivity. Where more than two possibilities are presented, from which a combination is to be selected, it is even less desirable to use and/or. With two possibilities, at least the intention is clear; but with more than two it may not be. Instead of x, y, and/or z, use an appropriate alternative, such as one or more of x, y, and z; some or all of x, y, and z. Sometimes or is ambiguous in another way: Wild dogs, or dingoes, inhabit this stretch of land. Are wild dogs and dingoes the same or different? For one case write: wild dogs (dingoes) inhabit ... (meaning dingoes are wild dogs); for the other case write: either wild dogs or dingoes inhabit... Number signs Avoid using the # symbol (known as the number sign, hash sign, or pound sign) when referring to numbers or rankings. Instead use the word "number", or the abbreviation "No." The abbreviation is identical in singular and plural. For example: Do not use the symbol №. Terminal punctuation Periods (also called "full stops"), question marks, and exclamation marks are terminal punctuation, the only punctuation marks used to end sentences in English. In some contexts, no terminal punctuation is necessary. In such cases, the sentence often does not start with a capital letter. Sentence fragments in captions or lists should in most cases not end with a period. For the use of three periods in succession, see Ellipses, above. Clusters of question marks, exclamation marks, or a combination of them are highly informal and inappropriate in H&SS articles. Use the exclamation mark with restraint. Question marks and exclamation marks may sometimes be used in the middle of a sentence if the sentence is within a quotation: “Why me?” she wondered. The Homeric question is not “''Did Homer write the Iliad?”'' but “''How did the Iliad come into being?”'', as we have now come to realize. The door flew open with a BANG! that made them jump. encyclopedic, but acceptable in transcription from audio, or in direct quotation. Spacing In normal prose, never place a space before commas, semicolons, colons, or terminal punctuation, but place a space after them. Consecutive punctuation marks Where a proper noun that includes terminal punctuation ends a sentence, do not add a second terminal punctuation mark. Where such a noun occurs mid-sentence, punctuation may be added. Dates and time Time of day ' Time of day is normally expressed in figures rather than being spelled out. Context determines whether the 12- or 24-hour clock is used. 12-hour clock times are written in the form 11:15 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., or the form 11:15 am and 2:30 pm, with a space (preferably a non-breaking space) before the abbreviation. Use noon and midnight rather than 12 pm and 12 am; it may need to be specified whether ''midnight refers to the start or the end of a date. 24-hour clock times are written in the form 08:15, 22:55, with no suffix. Note that 00:00 refers to midnight at the start of a date, and 24:00 to midnight at the end of a date. 'H&SS will generally use the 24 hour clock. ' 'Days ' For full dates, use the format 10 June 1921 or the format June 10, 1921. Similarly, where the year is omitted, use 10 June or June 10. Do not use numerical date formats such as "03/04/2005", as this could refer to 3 April or to March 4. If a numerical format is required (e.g. for conciseness in long lists and tables), use the YYYY-MM-DD format: 2005-04-03. 'Choice of format ' All the dates in a given article should have the same format (day-month or month-day). These requirements do not apply to dates in quotations or titles. Articles on topics with strong ties to a particular English-speaking country should generally use month-day format. Do not change an article from one form to another without good reason. 'Months and seasons ' For month and year, write June 1921, with no comma. Abbreviations for months, such as Feb. are used only where space is extremely limited. 'Years and longer periods ' Avoid inserting the words the year before the digits (1995, not the year 1995), unless the meaning would otherwise be unclear. Decades are written in the format the 1980s, with no apostrophe. Years are denoted by AD and BC. The abbreviations are written without periods, and with a non-breaking space, as in 5 BC. Omit AD unless this would cause ambiguity. 'Current ' Use of the term "current" should be avoided. What is current today may not be tomorrow; situations change over time. Instead, use date- and time-specific text. 'Numbers ' In general, write whole numbers as words and write all other numbers as numerals: 1/5 or one fifth, eighty-four, two hundred, but 3.75, 21 million). In general, use a comma to delimit numbers with five or more digits to the left of the decimal point. Numbers with four digits will have a comma after the first digit (1,000 not 1000) In general, use decimals rather than vulgar fractions with measurements, but the latter are permitted with measuring systems such as Imperial units, Avoirdupois, and U.S. customary units. Keep articles internally consistent. Scientific notation (e.g., 5.8×107 kg) is preferred in scientific contexts Write out "million," "billion,” “trillion” etc. Write 3% or three percent but not three % or 3 % with a space. In ranges of percentages write only one percent sign: 3–14%. Indicate uncertainties as value/±/uncertainty/×/10n/unit symbol: 1.534±0.35×1023 m Currencies Use the full abbreviation on first use (US$ for the U.S. dollar and A$ for the Australian dollar), unless the currency is already clear from context. Use only one symbol with ranges, as in $250–300. In articles that are not specific to a country, express amounts of money in United States dollars, euros, or pounds sterling. Do not link the names or symbols of currencies that are commonly known to English-speakers ($, £, €), unless there is a particular reason to do so; do not use currency symbols which may be ambiguous, unless they are clear from the context of the article. Generally, use the full name of a currency, and link it, on its first appearance if English-speakers are likely to be unfamiliar with it (52 Nepalese rupees); subsequent occurrences can use the currency sign (just 88 Rs). Most currency signs are placed before the number; they are unspaced ($123), except for alphabetic signs (R 75). Units of measurement The main unit in which a quantity is expressed should generally be in U.S. customary units. However: Scientific articles may also use specialist units appropriate for the branch of science in question. English-speaking countries use different units for the same measurement, provide a conversion in parentheses. Examples: the Mississippi River is 2,320 miles (3,734 km) long. In a direct quotation, always keep the source units. If a conversion is required, it should appear within square brackets in the quote In places where space is limited, such as tables, infoboxes, and parenthetical notes, and in mathematical formulae, use unit symbols. In prose it is usually better to spell out unit names, but symbols may also be used when a unit (especially one with a long name) is used repeatedly. However, spell out the first instance of each unit in an article (for example, the typical batch is 250 kilograms ... and then 15 kg of emulsifier is added), except for unit names which are hardly ever spelled out (e.g. the degree Celsius). Most unit names are not capitalized. Use "per" when writing out a unit, rather than a slash: meter per second, not meter/second). If a unit symbol which can be unfamiliar to a general audience is used in an article, it should be shown parenthetically after the first use of the full unit name: for example, His initial betatron reached energies of 2.3 megaelectronvolts (MeV), while subsequent betatrons achieved 300 MeV. When dimensions are given, each number should be followed by a unit name or symbol (e.g., write 1 m × 3 m × 6 m, not 1 × 3 × 6 m). When they form a compound adjective, values and unit names should be separated by a hyphen: for example, a five-day holiday. Unit symbols are preceded by figures, not by spelled-out numbers. Values and unit symbols are separated by a non-breaking space. For example, 5 min. The percent sign, and units of degrees, minutes, and seconds for angles and coordinates, are unspaced. Standard unit symbols are undotted; non-standard abbreviations should be dotted. No s is appended, e.g., km, in, lb, not kms, ins, lbs. For quantities of bytes and bits, specify whether the binary or decimal meanings of K, M, G, etc. are intended. The prefixes ''kibi-'', ''mebi-'', ''gibi-'', etc. (symbols Ki, Mi, Gi, etc.) are not familiar to most readers, and should not generally be used. '''Possessives Singular nouns For the possessive of most singular nouns, add s'' (my daughter's achievement, my niece's wedding, Cortez's men, the boss's wife, Glass's books, Illinois's largest employer, Descartes's philosophy, Verreaux's eagle). Exception: abstract nouns ending with an /s/ sound, when followed by sake (for goodness' sake, for his conscience' sake). For the possessive of singular nouns ending with just one s'' (sounded as /s/ or /z/) Add '''s to every possessive: Add 's if the possessive has an additional /ɪz/ at the end: Jan Hus's life, Morris's works. If there is disagreement over the pronunciation of a possessive, the choice should be discussed and then that possessive adopted consistently in an article. (Possessives of certain classical and biblical names may have traditional pronunciations which may be deemed as taking precedence: Jesus' answer and Xerxes' expeditions, but Zeus's anger; and in some cases—particularly possessives of inanimate objects—rewording may be an option: the location of Vilnius, the old bus route, the moons of Mars.) 'Plural nouns ' For a normal plural noun, ending with a pronounced s'', form the possessive by adding just an apostrophe (my sons' wives, my nieces' weddings). For a plural noun ''not ending with a pronounced s'', add '''s (women's careers, people's habits, the mice's whiskers; The two Dumas's careers were controversial, but where rewording is an option, this may be better: The career of each Dumas was controversial). 'Official names ' Official names (of companies, organizations, or places) should not be altered (St Thomas' Hospital should therefore not be rendered as St Thomas's Hospital, even for consistency). Pronouns The possessive its (the dog chased its tail) has no apostrophe. (It's is the short form of it is or it has: it's a nice day, it's been a nice day.) Hers, ours, yours, theirs, and whose likewise lack apostrophes. Possessives of non-personal pronouns such as everyone are formed as if they were nouns (everyone's mother, nobody's hat, anyone else's opinion, the others' husbands). 'First-person pronouns ' H&SS articles must not be based on one person's opinions or experiences, so never use I'', ''my, or similar forms (except in quotations). Also avoid we, us, and our: We should note that some critics have argued in favor of our proposal (personal rather than encyclopedic). But these forms are acceptable in certain figurative uses. For example: In historical articles to mean the modern world as a whole: The text of De re publica has come down to us with substantial sections missing. The author's we found in scientific writing: We are thus led also to a definition of "time" in physics (Albert Einstein); Throughout the proof of this theorem we assume that the function ƒ'' is uniformly continuous. Often rephrasing is preferable:Throughout the proof of this theorem it is assumed that the function ''ƒ is uniformly continuous. 'Second-person pronouns ' Do not use the second person (you, your); it is often ambiguous and contrary to the tone of an encyclopedia. Use the third person (a noun, or he, one, etc.): instead of When you move past "Go", you collect $200, use When players pass "Go", they collect $200, or A player passing "Go" collects $200. The passive voice may sometimes be used instead: When "Go" is passed, $200 is collected. 'Plurals ' Use the appropriate plural; allow for cases in which a word is now listed in major English dictionaries, and normally takes an s'' or ''es plural, not its original plural. Some collective nouns—such as army, company, crowd, fleet, government, majority, mess, number, pack, and party—may refer either to a single entity or to the members that compose it. In H&SS, these words are almost invariably treated as singular. 'Vocabulary ' 'Contractions ' Uncontracted forms such as do not or it is are the default in H&SS style; don't and it's are too informal. Avoid using contractions when possible. If the contraction is part of an original quote, then keep the contraction intact. 'Gender-neutral language ' Use gender-neutral language where this can be done with clarity and precision. This does not apply to direct quotations or the titles of works (The Ascent of Man), which should not be altered; or to wording about one-gender contexts, such as an all-female school (When any student breaks that rule, she loses privileges). Ships may be referred to by either female pronouns ("she", "her") or genderless pronouns ("it", "its"). Either usage is acceptable, but each article should be internally consistent and employ one or the other exclusively. As with all optional styles, articles should not be changed from one style to another unless there is a substantial reason to do so. 'Contested vocabulary ' Avoid words and phrases that give the impression of straining for formality, that are unnecessarily regional, or that are not widely accepted. 'Instructional and presumptuous language ' Avoid such phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, and call into question the reason for including the information in the first place. 'Subset terms ' A subset term identifies a set of members of a larger class. Common subset terms are including, among, and et cetera (etc.). Do not use redundant subset terms (so avoid constructions like these: Among the most well-known members of the fraternity are included two members of the Onassis family or The elements in stars include hydrogen, helium, etc.). Do not use including to introduce a complete list, where comprising, consisting of, or composed of would be more accurate. 'Identity ' The term most commonly used for a person will be the one that person uses for himself or herself, and the most common terms for a group will be those that the group most commonly uses for itself. Any person whose gender might be questioned should be referred to by the gendered nouns, pronouns, and possessive adjectives that reflect that person's latest expressed gender self-identification. This applies in references to any phase of that person's life. Nevertheless, avoid confusing or seemingly logically impossible text that could result from pronoun usage (for example: instead of He gave birth to his first child, write He became a parent for the first time). Use specific terminology. For example, often it is more appropriate for people from Ethiopia (a country in Africa) to be described as Ethiopian, not carelessly (with the risk of stereotyping) as African. The adjective Arab (never to be confused with Muslim or Islamic) refers to people and things of ethnic Arab origin. The term Arabic refers to the Arabic language or writing system, and related concepts (Not all Arab people write or converse in Arabic). 'Foreign terms ' Foreign words should be used sparingly. Use italics for phrases in other languages and for isolated foreign words that are not current in English. Loanwords and borrowed phrases that have common usage in English—Gestapo, samurai, vice versa—do not require italics. A rule of thumb is not to italicize words that appear unitalicized in major English-language dictionaries. 'Spelling and Romanization ' Names not originally written in a Latin alphabet (written for example in Greek, Cyrillic, or Chinese scripts) must be given a romanized form for use in English. Use a systematically transliterated or otherwise romanized name (Aleksandr Tymoczko, Wang Yanhong); but if there is a common English form of the name (Tchaikovsky, Chiang Kai-shek), use that form instead. The use of diacritics (such as accent marks) for foreign words is neither encouraged nor discouraged; their usage depends on whether they appear in verifiable reliable sources in English and on the constraints imposed by specialized Wikipedia guidelines. Provide redirects from alternative forms that use or exclude diacritics. Spell a name consistently in the title and the text of an article. For foreign names, phrases, and words generally, adopt the spellings most commonly used in English-language references for the article, unless those spellings are idiosyncratic or obsolete. If a foreign term does not appear in the article's references, adopt the spelling most commonly used in other verifiable reliable sources (for example English-language dictionaries and encyclopedias). For punctuation of compounded forms, see relevant guidelines in Punctuation, above. Sometimes the usage will be influenced by other guidelines such as National varieties of English, above, which may lead to different choices in different articles. 'Technical language ' Some topics are intrinsically technical, but editors should try to make them accessible to as many readers as possible. For unavoidably technical articles a separate introductory article may be the best solution.. Do not introduce new and specialized words simply to teach them to the reader, when more common alternatives will do. 'Geographical items ' Places should generally be referred to consistently by the same name as in the title of their article. Exceptions are made if there is a widely accepted historical English name appropriate to the given context. In cases where such a historical name is used, it should be followed by the modern name in round brackets (parentheses) on the first occurrence of the name in applicable sections of the article. This resembles linking; it should not be done to the detriment of style. On the other hand, it is probably better to provide such a variant too often than too rarely. If more than one historical name is applicable for a given context, the other names should be added after the modern English name, that is: "historical name (modern name, other historical names)". 'Images ' Infoboxes, images, and related content in the lead must be right-aligned. Use captions to clarify the relevance of the image to the article. Each image should be inside the major section to which it relates (within the section defined by the most recent level 2 heading), not immediately above the section heading. It is often preferable to place images of faces so that the face or eyes look toward the text. However, it is not necessary to reverse an image simply to have the subject facing the text. Multiple images in the same article can be staggered right-and-left. For most images outside the introduction, prefer the default image size, which is 220 pixels for most users, but should not be specified. The lead image is usually given a width of about 300 pixels. See Manual of Style/Images for information on when and how to use other sizes. Avoid referring to images as being on the left or right. Image placement is different for viewers of the mobile version of Wikipedia, and is meaningless to people having pages read to them by assistive software. Instead, use captions to identify images. 'Avoid entering textual information as images ' Textual information should almost always be entered as text rather than as an image. True text can be colored and adjusted with CSS tags and templates, but text in images cannot be. Images are not searchable, are slower to download, and are unlikely to be read as text by devices for the visually impaired. Any important textual information in an image should also appear in the image's alt text, caption, or other nearby text. 'Captions ' Photographs and other graphics should always have captions, unless they are "self-captioning" images (such as reproductions of album or book covers) or when they are unambiguous depictions of the subject of the article. In a biography article no caption is necessary for a portrait of the subject pictured alone; but one might be used, to give the year, the subject's age, or other circumstances of the portrait along with the name of the subject. 'Formatting of captions ' Captions normally start with a capital letter. Most captions are not complete sentences, but merely sentence fragments that should not end with a period. If any complete sentence occurs in a caption, all sentences and any sentence fragments in that caption should end with a period. The text of captions should not be specially formatted (with italics, for example), except in ways that would apply if it occurred in the main text. Captions should be succinct; more information about the image can be included on its description page, or in the main text. 'Bulleted and numbered lists ' Do not use lists if a passage is read easily as plain paragraphs. Do not leave blank lines between items in a bulleted or numbered list unless there is a reason to do so, since this causes the Wiki software to interpret each item as beginning a new list. Use numbers rather than bullets only if: A need to refer to the elements by number may arise; The sequence of the items is critical; or The numbering has some independent meaning, for example in a listing of musical tracks. Use the same grammatical form for all elements in a list, and do not mix sentences and sentence fragments as elements. When the elements are complete sentences, each one is formatted with sentence case (i.e. the initial letter is capitalized) and a final period. When the elements are sentence fragments, the list is typically introduced by a lead fragment ending with a colon. When these elements are titles of works, they retain the original capitalization of the titles. Other elements are formatted consistently in either sentence case or lower case. Each element should end with a semicolon, with a period instead for the last element. Alternatively (especially when the elements are short), no final punctuation is used at all. 'Links ' 'Wikilinks ' '''Make links only where they are relevant and helpful in the context: Excessive use of hyperlinks can be distracting, and may slow the reader down. Redundant links clutter the page and make future maintenance harder. High-value links that are worth pursuing should stand out clearly. Linking to sections: A hash sign (#) followed by the appropriate heading will lead to a relevant part of a page. Initial capitalization: Wikipedia's MediaWiki software does not require that wikilinks begin with an upper-case character. Only capitalize the first letter where this is naturally called for, or when specifically referring to the linked article by its name. Check links: Ensure that the destination is the intended one; many dictionary words lead to disambiguation pages and not to complete or well-chosen articles. External links ' Do not use external links in the body of an article. Articles can include an ''external links section at the end, pointing to further information outside Wikipedia as distinct from citing sources. The standard format is a primary heading, External links , followed by a bulleted list of links. Identify the link and briefly indicate its relevance to the article. '''Miscellaneous Keep markup simple ' The simplest markup is often the easiest to edit, the most comprehensible, and the most predictable. Markup may appear differently in different browsers. Use HTML and CSS markup sparingly; in particular, do not use the CSS float or line-height properties because they break rendering on some browsers when large fonts are used. An HTML entity is sometimes better than the equivalent Unicode character, which may be difficult to identify in edit mode; for example, Α is understood where Α(the upper-case form of Greek α) may not be. '''Formatting issues ' Modifications in font size, blank space, and color are an issue for the Wikipedia site-wide style sheet, and should be reserved for special cases only. Typically, the use of custom font styles will: reduce consistency, since the text will no longer look uniform; reduce usability, since it might be impossible for people with custom stylesheets (for accessibility reasons, for example) to override it, and it might clash with a different skin as well as inconvenience people with color blindness (see below); and cause disputes, since other editors may disagree aesthetically with the choice of style. Outside article text, different font sizes are routinely used in navigation templates and infoboxes, tables (especially in larger ones), and some other contexts where alternatives are not available (such as table captions). Specify font sizes relatively (for example in CSS with font-size: 80%) rather than absolutely (like font-size: 8pt). 'Color coding ' Information should be accessible to all. Do not use color alone to mark differences in text: they may be invisible to people with color blindness. Also, black-and-white printouts, older computer displays with fewer colors, and monochrome displays (older PDAs and cell phones) cannot show such distinctions. Choose colors that can be distinguished by the readers with the commonest form of colorblindness (red–green), such as maroon and teal; and also mark the differences with change of font or some other means (maroon and alternative font face, teal). 'Scrolling lists and collapsible content ' Scrolling lists and boxes that toggle text display between hide and show should not conceal article content, including reference lists, image galleries, and image captions. They especially should not be used to conceal "spoiler" information. Collapsible sections or cells may be used in tables that consolidate information covered in the main text, navboxes, infoboxes, or chess puzzles. When scrolling lists or collapsible content is used, take care that the content will still be accessible on devices that do not support JavaScript or CSS. 'Invisible comments ' Editors use invisible comments to communicate with each other in the body of the text of an article. These comments are visible only in the wiki source (that is, in edit mode), not in read mode. Invisible comments are useful for flagging an issue or leaving instructions about part of the text, where this is more convenient than raising the matter on the talk page. They should be used judiciously, because they can clutter the wiki source for other editors. Check that your invisible comment does not change the formatting, for example by introducing white space in read mode. To leave an invisible comment, enclose the text you intend to be read only by editors between . For example: . 'Pronunciation ' '''Pronunciation in Wikipedia is indicated in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). In most situations, for ease of understanding by the majority of readers and across variants of the language, quite broad IPA transcriptions are best for English pronunciations. See Wikipedia:IPA for English and Wikipedia:IPA. For English pronunciations, pronunciation respellings may be used in addition to the IPA.